Re: Sage Act! Pro 2011

I have to agree with you that the ACT report writer leaves much to be desired. They hide the way to close up spaces. I assume you are talking about if a field is blank, don't print it. If that's what you mean, then when you are editing the label template, right click on the field and choose the Format tab. Check the box that says "collapse when blank".

If you are talking about removing spaces next to a comma, say on the city, state zip grouping, that's in a script which is well and truly buried. I've found the easiest way to find scripts is to open the report file in notepad. The report files and labels are XML which is text. You can scroll down to see what the scripts looks like. Really poorly documented about placement and usage of them.

Re: Sage Act! Pro 2011

I have to agree with you that the ACT report writer leaves much to be desired. They hide the way to close up spaces. I assume you are talking about if a field is blank, don't print it. If that's what you mean, then when you are editing the label template, right click on the field and choose the Format tab. Check the box that says "collapse when blank".

If you are talking about removing spaces next to a comma, say on the city, state zip grouping, that's in a script which is well and truly buried. I've found the easiest way to find scripts is to open the report file in notepad. The report files and labels are XML which is text. You can scroll down to see what the scripts looks like. Really poorly documented about placement and usage of them.

Re: Sage Act! Pro 2011

Ok that's fine, why bother with an import tool that doesn't work??? The issue is the three page document that tries to explain how to close up the blank spaces in a label. Importing from 2005 Act!. The steps are too difficult to create my own labels, poorly programmed/designed product with a VERY short support time span. I can't leave out the City, ST and Zip from labels.

Re: Sage Act! Pro 2011

Roy, sorry I am NOT and cannot justify a $45.00 plus book to do one or two templates. We only spent $150 for the program. It is riduculous that Sage has put out a product that doesn't work well and has very limited support without charging exhorbitant fees for that help, and don't get me started on the tech support people that are reading a script and are not officed in the United States. After you fumble around using words that they understand, they sometimes get the advice correct. All I got was a three pages of instructions on how to "simply" close up space in a label, envelope, etc. And that didn't work.

Re: Sage Act! Pro 2011

With all due respect, the problem isn't the report editor. The report generator is very capable. It does have limitations in the data sourcing but it's capabilities are very good. Learning to use it does have a steep learning curve because the report generator is actually a programming language. The alternatives to the ACT! report generator are a couple of third party reporting tools. One is Crystal reports which has an even more complex learning curve than the ACT! reports and it costs about $500. Another option is StoneField Query whic does have a wizard to simplify creating most reports but it's cost is something like $700.

Your choices are limited, learn to use the ACT! reports, pay for an expensive third party report tool, hire someone to create the templates for you or get along without.

Re: Sage Act! Pro 2011

With all due respect, I only want to print one type of label and one type of envelope and want my merged letters to work. After spending the amount on ACT! Pro 2011, the small business that I work for (3 PEOPLE) expect the product to work and not have to purchase a book that gives items direction way beyond what our needs are. We only keep a database and calendar, we don't do anything else other than print labels, envelopes and merged letters and that is quarterly.

Re: Sage Act! Pro 2011

The information you need is available in knowledgebase documents and they are free. the standard labels and envelopes do work. What you want is something custom and the program can't make that happen automatically, it requires effort from you.